Saturday, November 12, 2016

The Truman High School Band, a float from Kennedy High School and DECA will be three of the featured entries in the 2016 Taylor Winter Festival Parade, which will start at City Hall at 4 p.m. Saturday, November 26. The winterfest starts the holiday season in the City of Taylor.The band will be joined by other entries from the Fire Department, Petting Farm, Farmer's Market, churches, Wayne County Community College District, cheerleaders, Rotary Club, Garden Club, Taylor Dance, political leaders, Special Olympics, Zumba, clowns and businesses throughout the community.The Taylor Ford Parade begins at City Hall and kicks off at 4 p.m. It will march down Goddard to Pardee and on to Heritage Park. The Masco Winterfest Activities will take place in the Sheridan Center Open Air Pavilion and include Disney characters, special photos, a "Fill the F-350 Toy Drive," carolers, bands and live music, ice carving, raffles and much more. WNIC 100.3 will be on site with host Chris Edwards.The welcoming of Santa Claus and the official lighting of the Realty Transitions Christmas Tree will take place at approximately 6:15 inside the pavilion, followed by the Taylor Chevrolet Fireworks display -- which is an all-new feature to the event. The Taylor Winterfest kicks off not only the holiday season, but Santa's Magic Forest, which opens that day in the Heritage Park Activities Building next door to the Sheridan Center.Santa's Magic Forest is the biggest fundraiser for the Downriver Fish & Loaves Food Pantry, which supplies food for the needy in Taylor and many surrounding communities.

Taylor
Parks Elementary School welcomes the Fur Angels into their reading groups each
year.

This
is “Beau” with owner Cindy Leskun, and “Odie” with his owner Diane Schuler.
They are part of a non-profit organization solely comprised of volunteers
offering compassion and unconditional love through pet therapy.

The
program is a motivator to encourage better reading skills and self-confidence
in children. Here students meet with the dogs and the owners in the library to
read them a book of their choosing.

As
one Taylor Parks student remarked, "The dogs don't care is you have a hard
time reading, they love you anyway."

Blair
Moody Elementary School has joined with U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell to honor military
veterans through her “Smiles for A Vet Program.” Ms. Hughes, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs.
Michaelis and Mrs. Troy’s classes participated in creating cards, posters and
artwork for distribution to various Veterans’ facilities.

After
Dingell’s “Valentines for Veterans” project received such an overwhelming
response from schools and local veterans, she announced she will work with the
Ann Arbor VA Hospital, the John D. Dingell VA Hospital and other veteran
organizations to start a year-round program that encourages students to create
artwork for veterans.

“The
response to ‘Valentines for Veterans’ was touching, with thousands of students
and residents coming together to show our veterans how much they are loved,”
said Dingell. “Responding to the success of the project and the smiles it
brought to veterans’ faces, we are working with the community to extend the
project year-round.

“The
‘Sending Smiles to Vets’ program will engage grade school children on an
ongoing basis to bring cheer to hospital rooms and community gathering places
and reach even more veterans.”

In
a bipartisan manner, Dingell invites other members and elected officials at all
levels to join her to deliver the artwork to VA hospitals and veteran service
organizations.

Friday
at McDowell Elementary School something extraordinary happened – the staff and
children featured the best program honoring Veterans Day that anyone had
ever seen.

The
school was all decked out in red, white and blue from students throughout the
building. Students and staff invited family members to be celebrated and
showered with thanks for a job well done for the United States of America.

Mrs.
Arndt, McDowell music teacher, directed the children in several musical
tributes of a job well done!

Friday, November 11, 2016

On Election Day, November 8, Taylor School District voters approved by an overwhelming 59-41 percent margin an enhancement millage for the district. The school millage was the first passed in the district since the late 1960s.

It was one of two ballot initiatives that will directly
impact all students in the district. In total, the district will be receiving nearly $3.8M in additional funding per year heading into the near future.

The Taylor School District School Improvement Bond was the result of a collaboration between district officials and Mayor Rick Sollars. They took the opportunity to ask voters to consider a school improvement
bond with a rate of 0.96 mills.

That rate was chosen specifically to match an expired City of Taylor millage levy to
ensure that this school improvement bond, if approved, would have a net zero
impact on residents' tax bills. The former 20-year bond levy, which
expired in August 2015, targeted purchase and renovation of large sites in the
southwest corner of the community.

Funds
from this school bond will generate approximately $1.19 million
per year for the next five years and are specifically targeted to support the purchase of new school
buses, repair and upgrade school buildings, and purchase instructional
technology.

At the same time, the Wayne County RESA Enhancement Millage also passed a countywide vote. That enhancement millage will levy 2 mills for six years,
and will bring approximately $2.6 million per year more to district.

This
millage will be used to improve district technology infrastructure; purchase
instructional technology for students and teachers; repair, replace and upgrade
roofs, boilers, windows, exterior doors and parking lots; and to maintain low class
sizes for our students.

Wayne
County voters approved the millage proposal that will give schools across the
county an additional $80 million in funding in each of the next six years. It's
a big win for school districts given voters rejected a similar proposal two
years ago. With all but one precinct reporting, the Wayne County Clerk's web
site shows the vote as 364,478-308,631.

Congratulations
to Debbie Stellini (5,606), Pamela Lakatos (5,186) and Jamee McCoy (5,118) who
were all elected during Tuesday’s General Election to the Board of Education.

The
fourth vacancy was subject to a write-in campaign, with the winner still pending.
According to The News-Herald Newspapers and Staff Writer Dave Herndon, only
three official candidates filed by the deadline to run. The fourth candidate,
the winner of the write-ins, will take up to 14 days from the election to
certify.

There
were six official write-in candidates who split about 1,700 votes. Those
candidates were incumbent Ron Miller, David Myers, Nicole Krapohl, Candace
Tulacz, Victoria Wilson and Procopio Gaglio.

According
to Jina Sawani, a spokesperson for the Wayne County Clerk’s Office the county
Board of Canvassers has to certify write-in votes.

“In
an election of this size it will likely take the full 14 days,” she said. “They
won’t certify it piecemeal, but the entire county all at once.”

Randall
Players, the after-school enrichment program at Randall Elementary School, has
begun early this year.

At
the beginning, students use cooperation, teamwork and ideas to become a better
drama player.

Here
students are making a house without talking using only their bodies.
Designed to promote teamwork and using gestures instead of words to convey
feelings. Students were also collaborating on how to make a king
cobra.

West
Middle School student Hannah Cox and Kennedy High School student Maddie
Heidenreich are helping us out this year. This year’s performance will be
in February.

Mrs.
Cahalan’s third grade is learning technology with Mrs. Morford at Randall
Elementary School. Mrs. Morford is a Michigan State University graduate and is
taking technology/computer classes at Henry Ford Community College. Everyone
loves her help! Mrs. Morford comes on Monday afternoons.